FALCO LIMNJ3ETUS. 
another place. I shall now only add, that both the testimony of the natives, and the 
remarks I personally made on the manners of our bird, have fully convinced me 
that the Falco niveus is a species distinct from the Falco Limnaeetus. 
The extensive materials which M. Temminck received from Java, have enabled 
him to give a very beautiful figure of our bird, representing it in its most perfect 
state of plumage. I was limited to a single specimen, in which the slight modifi- 
cation of a reddish tint on the head was less distinct, The external covering is 
very uniform in our specimen, and it was of a habit less full than that figured by 
M. Temminck, in consequence of which the tarsi appear considerably elevated. But it 
sufficiently accords with M. Temminck's description, both in respect to the colour and 
the proportion of parts ; and lengthened tarsi constitute, agreeably to the opinion of 
this distinguished naturalist, a peculiar character both of the Falco niveus and the 
Falco Limnaeetus, The bill is represented in our figure, in a small degree too large 
in proportion to the size of the head. Indeed the smallness of the bill has appeared to 
me to afford a peculiarity ; and as M. Temminck has made a remark on the view I 
have taken of the characters of this Bird, I shall add it in his own words. — " Les 
earacteres pris des doigts et des ongles de cet oiseau, servent k M. H. pour e'tablir les 
differences propres a. reeonnaitre cet oiseau de toute autre espece. Elles peuvent 
etre employees comparativement aux autres especes de rapaces Javans, mais on n* en 
saurait faire usage comme moyen de comparaison dans la grande sene des rapaces 
diurnes, parmi lesquels on trouve des especes k doigts beaucoup plus courts, et a 
ongles plus egales entre elles." In the Catalogue, however, already referred to, the 
bill is mentioned in conjunction with the smallness of the toes, and the plumose 
covering of the tarsi. — " A short strongly compressed and strongly curved beak, 
tarsi closely covered with plumes throughout their whole length, small claws, and 
those of nearly equal size on all the toes, form the prominent characters of our bird.' 1 * 
The Falco Limnaeetus is a scarce bird. I found it but once resorting to the 
extensive lakes, formed during the season of the rains, in the southern parts of the 
Island, where it feeds on fishes. I never met with it throughout the extent of the 
northern sea-coast. 
• Transactions of the Linnean Society, Vol, XIII. p. 138. 
